done!

the GRE is over. thank goodness. i did well, which was good, but the test itself was awful. 3 1/2 hours of staring at a computer screen does not equal fun. i think my general reaction after finishing can best be summed up in the words of the immortal clark w. griswold - "hallalujah, holy shit. where's the tylenol?"

but now i get my life back. it's nice not to carry vocab flashcards around with me everywhere i go. and i'm not having to spend my evenings holed up in the library with sample math problems.

life has been interesting lately. the bad thing is that my great-aunt had a very bad stroke last weekend. last i heard, she was paralyzed on her left side and she couldn't talk, but she could sit up for a little while and could answer questions by nodding her head. sadly, this is huge progress. unfortunately she's probably not going to get much better. part of why she's so bad off is that she lives alone and it could have been as much as 24 hours before they found her. my aunt talked to her saturday morning, and they didn't find her until sunday night. it's things like this that make me scared to grow old.

i've had a pretty awesome weekend so far. i took the whole day off on thursday, so after the test i came home and spent the rest of the day in a zombie-like, sleep-deprived state, lying on the couch and watching tv. friday night i went out to eat with D and some of her friends from work. on saturday morning i slept through my alarm (see previous statement on sleep-deprivation) and somehow made it from my bed to annandale in 23 minutes. i don't really want to think about how many traffic laws i violated. i'm really liking my work at the pregnancy center. i just wish it didn't have to involve early hours on a saturday.

i'm really loving my apartment complex. the current reason is because of the neighbors. not the neighbors in my actual building, mind you. they are quite annoying. (the winner is a toss-up between Angry Dude Upstairs, Electric Guitar at 1am Man, or Loud TV at Midnight Guy. we're not counting SWAT Team Apartment, because they haven't made any noise since that incident.) one building over is an apartment of three girls - jillian, brianne, and andrea - who i met through frontline, and they are awesome. then last month two other grove city kids, josh and joe (also frontline people), moved into the building on the other side. it's been really great being able to hang out. it reminds me of being back in college, where it's really easy to see people, just without all the silly rules about having shoes in the door and how many lights had to be on (ongoing debate: does a strand of christmas lights, a lava lamp, and the tv equal a light?).

so saturday night, the neighbors + jon went to eat indian food down the street, which involved standing in the entryway of the restaurant for 45 minutes while we waited for the table. josh appointed himself the official greeter for the restaurant, similar to the old men who give out the bulletins at church, which meant that he gave a hearty welcome to everyone who came in the door. people were a little scared. then we made dessert and watched a movie. it was really nice just to be able to relax. i've been so stressed out about the GRE that i haven't had any time to chill. we decided that we're turning into an episode of friends. with that decision made, we also declared that josh would be the one to get married accidentally in vegas.

tonight matt threw a pretty fantastic superbowl party. it was in the party room on the 21st floor of his building, with a pretty cool view of arlington. i brought lasagna and it was a big hit. i like it because it makes people think i'm an amazing cook. i don't tell them that the rest of my cooking repertoire consists of chicken pie, salmon patties, grilled chicken breasts, and varied and assorted casseroles. plus the old standbys of ramen noodles and kraft mac'n'cheese. (in my defense, however, it's not that i can't cook, i just choose not to most of the time. what is the point of putting in a ton of effort on some amazing dish if i'm the only one who is going to eat it and i would have been satisfied with three days of eating chicken and broccoli casserole?) i had a really great time at the party. i was able to talk to a lot of people i hadn't seen in awhile. and there were lizards dancing the "thriller" dance. it doesn't get much better than that.

the next week at work should be uneventful. hopefully. tomorrow is my 24th birthday. last week i had to stop and try to remember how old i was going to be. not a good sign. i'm not really doing anything to celebrate. i'm having dinner with my family on tuesday (because i haven't been to frontline in a month) and my mom is taking me shopping, but that's about it. i'm kind of boring sometimes.